by Jandi Heagen
Guest Writer
“If you’re really Santa Claus, you can get it for me. And if you can’t, you’re only a nice man with a white beard like mother says.” These are Susan Walker’s famous words from Miracle on 34th Street and they remind us of that pivotal childhood moment when, like Susan, we had to decide whether Santa was real or just a “nice man with a white beard.” Here are a few reflections from Bryan students and staff when they learned the truth about Santa.
Junior Bethany MacArthur
I believed in Santa Claus, and whenever I stopped believing in Santa Claus, my parents got my uncle to give me deer antlers for Christmas and they [parents and uncle] told me that it was Rudolph’s antlers, and I believed them. I brought the antlers to school and told people that Rudolph existed; and I think whenever I told my mom that I did that, they [parents] had the talk with me that Santa didn’t really exist.
Beth Hale, Resident Director of Arnold
I believed in Santa for a really long time because my family goes to church on Christmas Eve every Christmas Eve, and when we come home from church, Santa leaves one present on our bed, and it’s always our Christmas pajamas. So, I was having a fight with my little brother when I was about seven and he was five, and as the fight was escalating, I finally said ‘Well, Santa isn’t real!’ My parents were really upset with me and they sent me to my room for a time out and my dad came to talk to me and said something to the effect of ‘Even though you might know that Santa’s not real that doesn’t mean that you have to ruin it for other people.’ And so he was actually telling me that Santa wasn’t real because I told my brother that Santa wasn’t real, but I didn’t believe that myself. Other kids at school had told me, but I was like ‘no, because he leaves presents on our beds; we’re at church, so it couldn’t have been mom and dad because we’re all at church.’ Hale said that her dad still doesn’t know that he was the one who debunked her childhood belief in Santa.
Senior Andrew McPeak
“Well, some kid at school just came to me and was like ‘hey, you know Santa isn’t real’ and I was like ‘nuh-uh,’ and he was like ‘yeah-huh, idiot.’ So I was like ‘wow, that’s really terrible.’ But I remember feeling somewhat satisfied, though, because I could be like ‘hey, I’m smart because I know things that other people don’t know.’ I was like 6, so that meant a lot back then. I was pretty satisfied, especially because my brother didn’t know until he was like 10.”
Freshman Stéphanie Gagnon
“People used to tell me all the time that Santa is not real, but I never listen to people anyways, so why should this be an exception. Most people stop believing in Santa when they are about 10, but I think I actually started believing in Santa when I was 10. I don’t think he puts the presents under the tree, but I think he’s out there doing something. He’s probably out there with Tupac.”
Share how you discovered the truth about Santa. Continue the story on Bryan Triangle’s Facebook page.